News

SHANGHAI, China – Today, the 18th China Int’l Bicycle & Motor Fair was opened not only with the usual dragons and drums, but also with about one thousand senior citizens participating in a special festive bike ride. Many of them were using electric bicycles which nowadays account for about one quarter of the total Chinese bike market. With a European market now focusing more and more on pedelecs and e-Bikes and in the coming years to grow also to the market share that these types of bikes currently take up in the Chinese market; it is not difficult to determine what the 18th Shanghai is all about. Pedelecs, e-Bikes, e-Scooters and all that go with these Light Electric Vehicles like batteries, hub motors, control units and of course complete systems for OE use or complete bikes.

Pedelecs and e-Bikes are at this year’s Shanghai Show THE products that have the attention from buyers and product managers from Europe. However, what this first day also made clear is that there are fewer visitors from Europe compared to previous years. The reason for that is that the Chinese government is since March applying stricter rules for entry visa due to the Olympic Games and due to the Tibet affairs. Many of the Europeans that wanted to visit the Shanghai Show and already booked flights and hotels, were at the last minute faced with these rules and had to cancel their visits.

The Shanghai Show is next to European visitors every year getting a big number of buyers from the African and South American continents. It is hard to say whether they were also faced with the visa problems. But one thing is made clear at this first day and that is that the 18th Shanghai Show is not as crowded as it usually is. But with three more days to go, there’s still a chance that this will change.